Music: Riot Act

Artists: Pearl JamPearl JamAdam Kaspar and Pearl Jam

By Asif Memon

They charged in, they conquered all. Everyone listened intently to their message. Then they promptly escaped into obscurity displaying no desire to rule. Now, hidden away in some cave high up in the mountains, they occasionally venture out and softly whisper to whomever wants to hear.

Pearl Jam has come a long way from the dizzying heights of Ten. It has been a strange journey of experimentation, court room battles and near media anonymity. Above all their dogged obsession not to sell-out is what sets them apart and keeps me coming back for more.

On Riot Act (it’s been out for a while), their seventh studio album, they continue on the musical journey they began on Binaural. There are no anthems here, only broodingly earnest songs about love, death, despair, war and politics. Eddie Vedder no longer feels the need to grab you by the head and scream in his emotionally charged voice at you. He’s done that many times. We know he can do it and there are far too many cheap imitations out their (Creed, Staind). Instead he stays restrained throughout the album as if to say ‘here’s what I’m saying, maybe you’d like to listen. But I don’t care if you don’t’.

As on Binaural, here too the band is no longer Vedder’s exclusive mouthpiece. The song writing and composition honors are shared amongst the band members. Interestingly enough the strongest moments on the album (Love Boat Captain and I Am Mine) are Vedder songs. The entire album is steeped with a sense of tiredness and Vedder seems to be resigned to the fact that he has failed to make the world a better place. He asks the Love Boat Captain to ‘steer us towards the clear’. On I Am Mine he refuses to change what is around him, claiming to only control his mind, something no one can take away from him. The most refreshing aspect of Vedder’s lyrics is the utter lack of self-importance that socially aware rock bands tend to have (including Pearl Jam in its earlier days): ‘I thought the world/Turns out the world thought me’.

The astounding achievement on this album is the bands ability to capture the resigned and tired mood of the lyrics in the music. Songs like Can’t Keep, Love Boat Captain and I Am Mine, gradually build up without ever exploding into classic Pearl Jam anthems (a la Jeremy, Daughter etc.). Musically the album is more classic rock than grunge, with the exception of Save You where they revisit their grunge roots without much conviction.

At a time when pop music is more booty shakes than substance, when rap is all about violence and chauvinism and nu-metal promises to rip your eardrums out with teenage angst, Pearl Jam choose to have an honest conversation about things that matter. The world of music (if not the world at large) needs them.